“Many businesses are achieving success in niche markets, but they won’t be able to make the transition to a mass market company. Destra has done that, it is absolutely a serious media company and no longer a niche player,” Budde says.
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
By Mike Preston
The SmartCompany Dun & Bradstreet Industry Growth List shows which telco companies are booming thanks to growing demand for online content, faster internet speeds, VOIP, and new consumer trends.
A new generation of businesses built around the latest internet technologies and online consumer trends are achieving extraordinary revenue growth and reshaping the telecommunications sector.
Booming demand for online content – and the advertising revenue it attracts – is fuelling double or triple digit revenue increases for the industry’s leading companies.
Digital music, video and entertainment company Destra Corporation achieved 438% revenue growth in the 2006-07 financial year, a feat that earns it first place on the SmartCompany Dun & Bradstreet Industry Growth List for the telecommunications sector.
Online communities = advertising profits
It is telling that the top three businesses on the SmartCompany Dun & Bradstreet Industry Growth List are exposed to the global online advertising market, which is expected to be worth $US46 billion in 2008.
Sharp growth in online advertising revenue has helped Destra consolidate its position as Australia’s leading online content company, with 14 acquisitions in 18 months providing the basis for 2006-07 revenue of almost $67 million.
Founded in the mid 1990s, Destra has changed its spots a couple of times – from selling content to web hosting and back again – and is now in the process of adapting to tap the rivers of gold flowing from online advertising.
Chief executive Dominic Carosa says he expects much of the business’s growth in coming years to come from advertising rather than selling the music, video and entertainment content itself.
“We’re always thinking about how to monetise our content, and basically we believe that more and more content will be given away free and wrapped in advertising,” Carosa says. “When Rupert Murdoch recently dropped the subscription fee for The Wall Street Journal he said he can generate five times the revenue selling advertising, and Destra is in a similar situation.
Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says Destra stands apart from other fast growing business in the sector in its exposure to the mass media market.
“Many businesses are achieving success in niche markets, but they won’t be able to make the transition to a mass market company. Destra has done that, it is absolutely a serious media company and no longer a niche player,” Budde says.
For the full article, please visit SmartCompany.com.au website here >>